Players are recommended to upgrade to Windows 10 or Windows 11
Today, January 1, 2024, Valve has limited the operation of the Steam digital distribution service on many computers running Windows 7 and 8.
The Steam client will continue to run on computers with older versions of the OS, but it will no longer receive all updates, including security patches. In addition, Steam Support will no longer provide information to users of such PCs.
According to Valve, 95% of Steam users have already updated to Windows 10 or Windows 11. Outdated versions of Windows will no longer be supported due to the abundance of modules from the Google Chrome browser in the client, which is also no longer compatible with the listed OS versions. Valve recommends that all players upgrade their PC to Windows 10 or 11.
According to Steam's own analytics, users with Windows 7 and 8 account for about 1% of the service's total audience, which is more than a million people, given that Steam's monthly audience is 132 million gamers.